El-Kadada

Discovered in 1976, El-Kadada is one of the few Neolithic funerary sites known in the Shendi region.

The earliest signs of occupation are fragments of ceramic vases. Their wavy-line patterns indicate it was populated during the Khartoum Mesolithic, even though no other site from this period has been discovered in the region. The following transitional period is attested by dotted wavy line fragments identified on a small habitat in the place-name El-Kudra, located less than 200 meters from there. There is however no sign of occupation dating from the Khartoum Neolithic (fifth millennium BC). Prehistoric settlements of this period seem to have moved towards the site of El-Ghaba, 700 meters further south. The decoration of the ceramic material found in the tombs of El-Ghaba is similar to the one from the Neolithic Khartoum site, Shaheinab. The discovery of the Neolithic tombs of El-Kadada confirmed the suggestion of the British archaeologist A.J. Arkell, who first defined the terms Khartoum Mesolithic and Neolithic, of a late prehistoric period. The Neolithic populations of El-Kadada have developed an elaborated culture which is reflected in the refinement and new shapes of the ceramic decorations, the fine stone implements as well as the richness of the funerary deposit.

El-Kadada also possesses many historical cemeteries from the Napatan period to the post-Meroitic, from the eighth century BC to the sixth century AD. The funerary material of the pre-Christian graves shows that Meroitic funerary religion doesn’t end with the “end of Meroe” but with the beginning of Christianization, during the 6th century AD.